THE ISSUE: HEALTH CARE FRAUD COSTLY.

Medicare and Medicaid continue to attract crooks and con artists. Tens of billions of taxpayer dollars a year are lost to fraud or abuse in these programs for elderly, disabled and poor Americans.

With Congress considering proposals to extend coverage to millions more at a cost to taxpayers of at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade, it's more crucial than ever to crack down on cheating.

South Florida has become the nation's hotbed for bilking Medicare and Medicaid. And U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of Miami has prosecuted more than 700 people responsible for more than $2 billion in fraudulent Medicare billings since 2006.

The inspector general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources said health-care fraud is growing because its penalties are lower than for other criminal offenses, its scams are easy to copy and crooks aren't afraid they'll get caught.

The word is out in South Florida. In 2005, health providers here submitted 22 times as many claims for HIV drug infusion therapy as the rest of the country combined. Some former drug dealers in South Florida reportedly have switched to health fraud as a more lucrative criminal activity. One told ABC News he had billed the government $8 million over seven years for medical equipment he never sold.

Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., has sponsored a pair of proposals to reduce Medicare and Medicaid fraud. This is a goal on which members in both parties should agree, no matter how they feel about expanding the government's role in health-care coverage.

One proposal would implement a series of measures to prevent fake Medicare billings. It would put claims under more scrutiny and require the government to change the current system of using Social Security numbers to identify Medicare recipients.

The other proposal would require federal and state governments to post Medicaid payment records online, scrubbed of any information that would identify patients, opening those records to examination for patterns of waste, fraud and abuse.

Congress needs to take these and other steps to ensure that taxpayer dollars go only to legitimate providers and patients.